Perhaps the last thing on your mind while you are logging on to play Fortnite is online security. We know hackers and cybercriminals are drawn to the online gaming industry, targeting the sensitive information of gamers and their pockets. However, gaming companies monitor your in-game activities, which means they may know more about you than you want.
Why do game companies collect data?
Unless you are utilizing a tool such as a VPN game client, anytime you log on to play your favorite game, your personal information is stored. Publishing giant Activision – whose major intellectual properties include Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft – states in the privacy policy details of their data collection and retention policies. For those who read the privacy policy, it’s no secret that Activision collects players’ data and uses it to sell its products via advertising and social media.
Chiefly, the legitimate basis for collecting data is to repurpose marketing campaigns and target them to the appropriate group of potential buyers. Data can be used to identify popular games as well as games that are on the edge of becoming overshadowed by bigger names. Having such useful data allows any gaming publisher to gain insight into which titles require more marketing and publicity than others.
While this is great news for players who are hoping their favorite game might get pushed back into the spotlight, there is room to question whether you want your data to be leveraged in the first place.
Why is data collection among gaming companies a concern?
Although gaming companies have legitimate and completely legal reasons to collect data, the storing of huge amounts of data is cause for concern. The more player information companies keep, the more data hackers have to steal during inevitable data breaches.
In 2021, EA suffered a data breach in which hackers stole source code that is used to power some of their biggest titles. While spokespersons for the company believe no player data was compromised, the data could have easily been obtained if the hackers had their sights set on personal data.
This was the case in 2019: game developer Zygna fell victim to a cyber-attack in which more than 170M usernames and passwords from unique accounts were stolen. Whenever players sign up for an online gaming account, there is a wealth of information that is up for grabs for hackers. This can include names, email addresses, and dates of birth. Your IP address and geographic location can also be tracked by gaming companies.
This is exactly the kind of information that cybercriminals seek when devising identity theft scams. Following a data breach, hackers can easily merge all of those separate pieces of personally identifiable information to establish a victim profile. The hackers then use these data profiles to imitate their victims, opening credit lines in their names or creating fake social media identities to defraud the people on their contact lists.
What steps can I take to protect my data and privacy?
Installing a VPN is one of the most effective steps you can do to protect your data and privacy while gaming online. All of your data is exposed to the public if you do not use a VPN. This means that anyone with access to your connection can readily intercept it.
A Virtual Private Network encrypts your data and hides it from the public eye by employing complex algorithms. It also conceals your IP address. You can play games discreetly and safely in this manner, whether at home or in a cafe. When you consider it, a VPN has a lot more advantages for gamers. A VPN can, for example, defend you from DDoS attacks by concealing your identity. It can also help you escape ISP data throttling and network throttling, skip advertisements, and safely download files from torrent sites.
From what we have learned from the Zygna breach is that passwords are a hot commodity. Although there is not much you can do once your password is stolen by hackers, you can make it a lot more difficult for them to do.
Hackers frequently use social engineering techniques to guess your password based on publicly available information. As a result, you should never use your pet’s name or the street name where you used to live as your password. It is also best to avoid using the same password for multiple accounts. While it is easier to remember only one password, if a hacker gains access to one or two of your accounts, the security of all of them is compromised. You can use a password manager to help keep track of your passwords.
Game safer and smarter
Online gaming should be spent enjoying your free time, not worrying about potential hackers or data breaches. Investing in a gaming VPN is one way to let go of these worries. The more aware we are of what happens with our data when we log on, the better we can protect our privacy.